Slideshows, Screencasting and digital story telling

Slideshows like Powerpoint and Keynote presentations have many uses including storytelling, presentations, training, sharing graphs or illustrated information.  Sharing them with an online audience allows people to use them at a convenient time and location without the need to receive large email files.

SlideShare is a presentation sharing website where individuals can upload, share and view presentation files, including PowerPoint, OpenOffice and Keynote presentations and PDF files.  The presentation can be shared (embedded) in a blog or website, it has a URL which can be shared as a link via email and if a transcript is attached it will be indexed by Internet search engines.

SlideShare is also useful for finding presentations and documents on almost any topic. You can search on the site.

Animated slideshows
Slideshare presentations can have sound files, but not animations.  If animations are critical to the effectiveness of your presentation you may need to try an alternative host like Authorstream which supports animation and sound.

There are other websites for sharing presentations, including some that allow you to create presentations online:

AuthorStream , Zoho Show , Google Presentation  and 280 Slides .


Explore

• An overview of the resources available to researchers at the British Library.
• Seminar presentations from Public Library Services events
• Helene Blowers publishes many of her presentations 
• Michael Stephens uses an online file sharing website to store slides from his presentations, like this keynote presented at the Queensland Public Libraries Association conference.
  

Online screencasting 
Online screencasting tools allow you to make a digital recording of your computer screen, often with audio narration.  These can be useful for demonstrating how to use a website, database or an online tool.  Some of these tools include: Preezo, Screentoaster and Screenr .


Explore: 

• UCO Library Catalog online tutorial 
• Searching for Articles in Academic Search
  

Digital storytelling can also be interactive, like these Culture Shock stories inspired by visits to museums and galleries.



Adventure:
Create a slideshow or screencast and upload it to one of these sites - perhaps the hours that your library is open with some pictures of what the library looks like, or a guide to searching your library catalogue?

Nings

Nings are online communities, they combine elements of blogs, wikis and forums.

Explore
Have look at the following nings.
Mosman readers
Museum 3.0
Bibliotheek 2.0
Library 2.0

 Blog prompts
1. What did you like about them?
2. Did you find them useful?

Adventure
Nings are undergoing slots of changes.  Have a look at this site which showcases some alternatives to Nings.  Which one or ones do you like the most?
 
Adventure 
Join the library 2.0 ning  You will need to wait while your registration for the ning is approved by an administrator.  You will receive an e-mail when this occurs.



Edit your profile and add an image of yourself to it, and try out the tools.



Remember this is not a course specific ning, it is an ning for people who are discussing information about web 2.0 in libraries around the world.



Join at least two groups on the ning - New South Wales public libraries and at least one other
You might like to try some of the following
    * Leave comments for another member
    * Upload your photos or comment on others.
    * Check out the video others have added to the Ning. Add one of your own or add a comment
    * Start or contribute to a discussion forum
    * Check out the groups on the Ning and consider joining an appropriate one or start your own
    * Add the Ning badge to your blog
    * Add another of the Ning widgets to your blog
 and write about your experiences on your blog.

Evaluation

So now your library has a Flickr account, two blogs, a twitter account and of course your website. How many people have visited you, who is using what tool to find information about you, how are they finding you, where do people come from and how long do they stay when they come and where do they go after you leave? You are using many online tools to reach your many clients but how successfully are you reaching them. 

Without evaluation and usage data it is impossible to judge the effectiveness of these web 2.0 tools and your ability to make good decisions about which tool to use for which audience and for what purpose is limited.

Interestingly, many web 2.0 tools have excellent built in statistics (such as Flickr pro accounts). There are also free web based analysis tools such as Google analytics which are very useful for blog, wiki and website statistics. Many wikis also have useful built in statistics as well, so there is no shortage of data which is available.

Google alerts
Google alerts are a way of seeing what people are saying about your organisation (or you)  The British Library used blog posts (by other people) as part of their evaluation of their exhibition Sacred.   This can be a useful way of seeing how people are talking about your organisation.  You will need to set up a separate alert for each different name or phrase.

You can set up an alert through google alerts and have it sent to your e-mail address or google reader (select the options which suit you best)

Survey monkey
Survey monkey is a web based tool which you can used to construct surveys.  It is both a free and a fee service.

We used survey monkey to help in the evaluation of the learning 2.0 course.  You can read the paper we wrote about it  and the results of the nine month follow up  These papers contain data which we obtained via survey monkey.

Flickr pro
You can obtain statistics on the use of your Flickr account if you have a pro account including views, tags added, favourites, and contacts. For an example of some of the statistics available here is an extract from the Public Library Services






  
Tweet reach is a way of finding how tags are being used and twitter counter looks at a few statistics for Flickr accounts.

Google analytics
Google analytics is a way of analyzing your website or wiki.  It is being used on ref-ex and you can see some of the data which can be obtained by using it.

  

Adventure

Set up a google alert for your organisation or the area where you live.

Feedburner
Feedburner is a way of analyzing the use of your blog. Set up a Feedburner account for your blog.

Sign in using your gmail address and password.
Click claim your feed.

Enter the url for your blog, and select the feed you want to use.

You are given the following instructions

Set up a short survey using surveymonkey or zoomerang

Blog writing prompts

• Did you find out something you did not know about through your google alert?  If so what?
• What is your experience of using web 2.0 evaluation tools?
  

Ellen, Leanne and Mylee